Sri Lanka, April 3 -- Deputy Speaker Ajith Rajapakse suspended the Parliament sessions until 4 pm yesterday due to the absence of members of the ruling party and the opposition who were nominated to speak in the debate of Second Reading of the Banking Amendment Bill.
Although the Deputy Speaker called the names of fifteen members of the opposition and six members of the ruling party to speak in the debate, not a single member was present in the chamber. Accordingly, the proceedings of the House were temporarily suspended by the Deputy Speaker.
The order under the Value Added Tax (VAT) which proposed to increase the VAT percentage from 15 percent to 18 percent was passed in Parliament with a majority of 36 votes.
A total of 55 MPs voted i...